looking for a small simpled sealed option

[santiu]

Hello all.

I would like to make my first foray into full range speakers. I wanted to keep it simple. Just a sealed enclosure with 3-6" driver, maybe with a rear-firing tweeter. Will be crossed actively to a pair of folded horns, so no worries about low end extension.

So basically I'm out for 3-6" driver (with possible filter) suggestions that would work well sealed you guys think a Fostex 108ez or 107e would work? WAF is important here, so it has to be a nice looking driver Any thoughts on a rear firing tweeter, cheap Parts express piezo?

thanks!!

 

[Ty_Bower]

Any thoughts on a rear firing tweeter, cheap Parts express piezo?

I have only one thought on the tweeter - you're better off without it. Any good quality full range driver won't need one. A cheap tweeter is only going to spoil the sound.

 

[mashaffer]

I bought a pair of Mark Audio CHR-70s for a portable project I am working on and knocked up this test setup.

I cannibalized an old set of Onkyo mini-speakers and cut a baffle out of 3/4" particle board. So far I am quite pleased, though I have not done exhaustive testing. On the high end it does as well as 50 year old ears can manage to detect. On the bottom end it sounds like it starts to roll off around 80Hz or a bit lower but certainly has usable output low enough to cover the bass guitar as long as super loud is not on the agenda at the same time.

See my post here for a more detailed description of my first impressions.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/full-range/141496-mark-audio-chr-70-application-thread-37.html#post2093952

 

[planet10]

What kind of amp do you have? At what point do you intend to cross to the woofers? What kind of budget? What kind of levels do you listen at.

There is a huge range of suitable candidates. Answers to the above will narrow things down considerably.

dave

 

[TheSeekerr]

Also, define small. People have different expectations of what small means - are we talking Bose cube (say, 1-2 litres), uFonken (5 litres), mini-monitor (7ish litres) or standmount (say, 10-12ish litres)?

 

[planet10]

uFonken is 2 litres, bose cube probably 1/2 litre

dave

 

[TheSeekerr]

Oops, I seem to have misplaced an example volume while proofreading that post - it should have read:

are we talking Bose cube (say, 1/2 - 1 litre), uFonken (2 litres), mFonken (5 litres), mini-monitor (7ish litres) or standmount (say, 10-12ish litres)?

 

[santiu]

more details:
-small for me is around 8 liters or less. 5 or less would be cooler.
-amp will be low power and part of the build. hoping to use a 41hz Amp3 board (14W/ch)
-listening levels are low to medium. for use in apartment, so not much cranking.
-crossover is 120hz or 180hz. stereo bass though, so i can crossover a bit on the high side if needed
-budget is around $100/driver

just a couple other notes. I'm drawn to a sealed box not for any technical reason. I just like the pure simplicity of it, and hope i can find a suitable driver to do it. Even if it had a rear tweeter (or not as suggested) it would be unseen from the front and have aesthetically negligible impact on cabinet size. Oh, and if the rear tweeter isn't a horrible idea, i forgot i have a pair of Vifa D26TG-35-06 that could use a home if any of you think they might be worth using for that job.

thanks a bunch guys!!!

 

[planet10]

With that XO you have a huge selection of drivers... for instance FE126 in 7 litre will get you to 125 Hz, 92-93 dB. CHR-70 will <80 in 5-6 litre but almost 10 dB less efficient... EL70, FE127, FE103, FE108eS, Alpair 6, Alpair 7, FR125 should all work... and there are TBs, and more.

dave

 

[santiu]

Great. that's a good list there!

Okay, so I'll be honest. I'm not entirely sure how to narrow down the choices! Sensitivity is important to me due to wanting to use low power digital amps. Off axis performance is also important to me, which is why I was originally thinking of using a 4 inch driver since I'm worried about beaming with say a 6" (and also why i was considering the use of a rear-tweeter although to be honest, i'm still a bit confused on that front).

Do any drivers stick out as being particularly note-worthy as being good sealed box performers with good sensitivity and off axis performance?

thanks again!!!

 

[chris661]

Good off-axis generally means small.
High sensitivity is doable, but when combined with small means you'll be lacking bass extension. So, you're probably right in thinking 4" driver, so to narrow it further, look for high (ish) resonance, and high sensitivity (at least 90dB)
Chris

 

[Godzilla]

Hi santiu, without having heard all the speakers recommended i'd like to reinforce the TangBand suggestion. Great info on the Fostex and Alpair drivers dave, thanks! I should buy a pair of Alpairs just to hear them and better understand their sound. As much as i enjoy Fostex having compared the 127e (stock) to the 4" TB bamboo driver i'd say in a sealed box the TB sounds better bc it has a smoother, deeper and fuller sound in small cabinets, sealed or ported. In larger cabinets my opinion changes bc the Fostex is audibly more efficient and the bass can be brought up to balance out the sound by using more complicated cabinets. The 4" TB bamboo probably needs a tweeter to sound its best but it's not mandatory and their is a soft, pleasantly muted upper treble on this driver, imho. Perhaps the 3" TB bamboo driver is another good choice for your situation since it should have a similar sound to the 4" with a more extended treble. Without having heard it i'd bet it's a safe bet in a small sealed box even without a tweeter. The 3" TB titanium driver sounds excellent. My friend is very happy with them and they do not need a tweeter imo but they are more expensive than the bamboo and i am not sure you get much more if anything at all. There are a handful of TBs under $20 too all with different sounds but budget minded music lovers should enjoy most of them even tho they are not even close to state of the art... lol, they just play music 'well' and in an enjoyable way. I have seen the 3" TB titanium on new speakers selling for $2500 pair.

Stereophile: Where's the Rest of the Speaker?

Parts-Express.com:Tang Band W3-1364SA 3" Bamboo Cone Driver | CYBER09 tangband tb neo newband tangband-41108

Parts-Express.com:Tang Band W3-1335SB 3" Titanium Cone Driver | full range driver 3" woofer extended range driver tang band tb speakers tangband-41108

http://www.parts-express.com/wizard...ce=&srchCat=576&srchMfg=&srchPromo=&srchAttr=

http://www.zillaaudio.com/tb-1320-bamboo.htm

ZillaSpeak - Speakers

I put a couple links to past projects if you are interested... Good luck!

Godzilla

 

[santiu]

Thanks a bunch for the responses guys. I'll be sure to come back and post my experiments on the board here

 

[santiu]

The FF85Ken/microFonken is really starting to interest me. How low do you think I could crossover to woofers?

I noticed that the Tysen project is crossed over way up around 333Hz. Is it possible to play the FF85Ken down to the 100Hz range or does that start getting ugly? I'm thinking of going mono-sub, which is what is prompting this question.

 

[planet10]

The lower you XO the more likely you are to run out of steam... but you can do lower. Chris keeps urging me to go lower, in the case of Tysen it was as much about bafflestep as anything else. I have at least 1 MTM in the queue where XO will likely be lower.

We have a set of these with a dedicated woofer (with a 2.1 channel amp), before we figured out whatwas making the amp sound so bad we ran the uFonken full-range.

dave